Valley Community Gathers to Gain Awareness of South Texas Ocelot

SAN BENITO – Experts say there are only about 80 ocelots in the entire United States.

All of them are located in the Rio Grande Valley.

The Gladys Porter Zoo, the Friends of Laguna Atascosa Refuge, the Texas Zoo of Victoria and the Longhorn Cattle Company Restaurant hosted the Ocelot Conservation Day to highlight the wildcat.

“Their range used to be all the way from Louisiana to Arizona, all the way up to Arkansas and all the way down through Central America. But now it’s just this pocket of Texas,” said J. Brooks Jensen with the Texas Zoo of Victoria.